The Stonebearer Series: Book 1
by Opal Usher
Summary: The Amit Stone's been given to a girl from Earth who knows nothing about the troubles of the universe that's under oppression from the evil Illinguan emperor. It's up to her to accept or deny the responsibility to free the people of the galaxies.


Prologue

It must have been the third night in a row that I was having one of the weirdest dreams of my life. Yeah, the dream was clearer and less vague than the previous nights, but it was still bizarre, and totally unlike anything that would happen to someone as ordinary as me.

In the dream, I was just sitting up in my bed, yawning and stretching, getting ready to face another day. As I was about to get out of bed, I felt something smooth, hard and cool resting in the palm of my left hand, as if someone had put something into my fist while I was asleep. Curiously opening my hand and looking down at it, I saw a necklace.

The necklace itself was composed of simple silver links, much like a miniature chain. Nothing to really look at. It was the pendant that seized my eye. It was a clear stone shaped like an abstract or melting heart, with brilliantly burnished silver wrapped in a thin, sturdy band around it, securing it to the chain. The stone itself radiated a rainbow of soft light that slowly pulsed and revolved, illuminating my bedroom walls and casting a lovely hue of colors all around me.

I stared at the pendant for some time, fascinated. _What's this doing in my hand?_ I wondered, holding it up by the chain and looking closely at it. _Who would've put this in my hand while I was asleep?_

I completely freaked out when a strange masculine voice that seemed to come from everywhere said softly, "I can answer those questions."

Cowering down under the covers of my bed, still clenching the necklace in my fist, I managed to squeak, "Who's there!"

"Don't be afraid," the calm, strong voice told me. "You're holding me in your hand."

_What?_ "That's impossible," I said, straightening up and looking around, expecting to see a man in my room. To my suprise, there wasn't. And I remembered locking my door, as usual, last night.

"You see." This time the voice sounded like it was coming from the necklace pendant, and it carried an amused tone. "You Earthlings are all alike. You're suspicious of whatever you've never encountered or expirienced before."

"Prove that you are the necklace," I replied defiantly, "And I'll listen to what you have to say."

The stone flashed with every syllable of the voice's next sentence. "Your name is Kathryn Anne Smith, but you prefer to be known as Kate. You have four brothers, two sisters, a mother that you have been mistreated by,..."

"All right, so you know a lot about me. And," I admitted, staring closely at the stone to make sure that there were no LED's or mini lightbulbs hidden inside, "Not just anyone would know about my mom.. doing that. But how do I know that you're not just a stalker? Someone who's darn smart and knows the busness?"

The stone sighed audibly, obviously getting a little impatient. "That wouldn't make any sense. Why would a stalker put a necklace in your fist while you were lying fast asleep in your bed and not just simply kidnap you right then?"

That stumped me. "All right. I give up." Putting the necklace on (the chain was long enough to just slip over my head), I tugged on it. "How did you get here? Why are you here? Why did you come to me and not anyone else? How can you talk? Can anyone hear you?"

"I am here because you are the one that my creator chose to bear me. Only the one who has been chosen to guard me can hear me. And I can't talk. I can only express myself through the Source." After a brief pause, it added, "The Source is the ever-present force of all life and death. When somthing dies, whether it be a plant or animal or intelligent being, that living thing's soul becomes a part of the Source. When somthing is born, or begins to sprout, it takes only a little away from the Source so as to be able to live. But, if that living thing takes too mutch of the Source, it may die. If it doesn't, then during its life, it is peculiarly sensitive to things that may or may not come to pass, or thing that are, and things that were. And, very rarely, things that are coming and going.

"I am called the Amit Stone. I enable one who is sensitive to the Source to become even more sensitive, but only if my creator has chosen that person to be my keeper. Only one other has been chosen in a thousand years. The reason that I come to you now, not earlier and not later, is that the time has come when the menace of the galaxies stirs once again. Illiingu is a planet in the Galaxy of Unity that is occupied by various reptillian, intelligent species. The emperor of this planet, Sslizzrack, is a Zzlither who, over the twenty-six years of his reign, has built up an elite force with one design in mind: to find me."

I didn't like the sound of this. "Why does he want you?"

"He is sensitive to the Source as well, unfortunately, and he believes that I will make him powerful enough to conquer the universe. The downside to this is, he's right. Even if he hasn't been chosen, I would still give him a tiny little bit more sensitivity.

"Right now, he is already sensitive enough to foresee my return, and where I returned to."

"So," I finished for it,"he's already powerful enough to cause a whole lot of trouble for a whole lot of people, but if he did find you, then he would be able to cause even more trouble."

"Yes, but if he doesn't find me, then..."

"Then we wouldn't have to worry about that." I considered this carefully. "So, you want me to keep you safe from an intelligent reptile and his massive army of also-intelligent reptiles so that the universe won't have to worry about being taken over by them. Right?"

"Roughly. He's more than just a vague threat, however. You should take him more seriously than this, considering that he's on his way here right now."

With that, the dream suddenly ended.

But this time, as I sat up in my bed and stretched, getting ready to face another day, I felt somthing smooth, hard, and cool resting in the palm of my right hand.

Looking down slowly, almost afraid to see what it was, I opened my fist and gasped.

**_The dream was real!_**

****


End file.
